Air Attack/Tanker, Helo Pilots

[NookyBooky]

Die Thread! Die Die Die Die Die Die Die

 

[psysicx]

And is there any kind of schedules?

 

[avbug]

And is there any kind of schedules?

Yes, absolutely. Formerly, fires could break out any time, any where. This was unacceptable. Presently, fires will only occur between the hours of one in the afternoon through eight in the evening, monday through thursday, with every other week off. Fires must be scheduled a week in advance, and posted for comment, and bidding purposes. Now that we're scheduling all fires, life is much, much better.

Okay sonny have it your way.

Oh, come on, brightspark. You enter a conversation with nothing to offer but to cut down and reject, to insult, to accuse of cowardice and lack of patriotism, to imply history that never existed, and spout your mouth off regarding that which you do not know...and then withdraw? It's not my way here, it's fact and truth; something with which you are scarcely connected. Here, you enter to toss convoluted accusations of mental instability, questioning the need for tests of mental health in an industry and profession you could scarcely comprehend (as evidenced from your own ill informed postings), yet you have not the place or the gumption to defend or support these claims.

Have I asked for your respect, or made high claims of self worth? Hardly. Only you, demanding respect, thinking you have something which should impress, and the arrogance to toss flippant accusations out at those that do not immediately rise to your occasion, and bow in your presence, demand that. You, you, you. It is you that has the gall to suggest that all who do not bow to your wisdom, worship your bootlaces for gracing the cockpit we paid for in our own tax dollars, and bask in the glow of your opulence, are full of ourselves. Your arrogance is indeed sickening.

Yesterday I dropped retardant on fires, on military property, alongside military crews doing the same thing. They didn't demand respect, didn't cry out that they weren't recognized, didn't act as you. No. These merely did their job and exited the area, as did I, to load and return to do it again. These earn their respect by doing a good job, one in which you would clearly fail by sheer virtue of your haughty attitude.

Owners and operators have I cited who refused to hire military and airline-experienced aircrews. I did not quote myself as having made such a refusal. But for the actions of others, for the actions of those who own and run the industry, you would accuse me of failing to give respect, accuse me of dodging a draft, performing untoward acts for physicians in order to shirk a patriotic obligation, and all manner of claptrap designed only to confuse the issues in which you have no leg on which to stand. Your kind has always been quick to shoot the messenger, yet it really doesn't change the facts.

There has been a NOTAMED temporary ATCT located at a normally uncontrolled field for the last 5 days. And there has been a TFR located over our fire for the same time. ----------- Just about every Skywest Brasilia that lands doesn't realize there is a tower or a TFR. The Skywest pilots have been told to "please advise your Dispatchers there is a temporary tower!" To which one female pilot actually responded, "Oh, I see it here in my packet...OOOOPS! hehehe" So we know dispatch is getting the word out, but the pilots aren't paying attention. And on top of that we have had 2 Brasilias bust our TFR........

True Professionals!

Perhaps the closest unintentional near-midair I've experienced was climbing off the Kirk Complex fire near Big Sur in California. A Skywest Brasillia, in United Express colors passed close enough to me in the smoke that I noted the kid in the left seat was wearing Outdoorsman II sunglasses. We were deep inside a TFR, in very low visibility in smoke, and I was just climbing out of the terrain, had just been given a squawk code by ATC, and was fortunately heads-up.

Two years prior to that another close call occured on the Narrows fire near Palmdale, when I whitnessed a military aircraft that did not yet "exist" climb right through one of three stacks of heavy tankers holding for the fire in very smokey conditions. Joshua Approach denied any such aircraft was in the air, but I saw it quite clearly.

Survive the fire to be done in by a kid with an ego big enough to think he owns the sky, that radios look for traffic, and that it's the world that should move aside for him. Go figure...

 

[psysicx]

Haha I love the smartass coments. I meant due you work everyday for two months with no days off if the fire is big enough. But you could plan your schedule when the USFS is going to have a controlled burn. Here in Utah a couple acre controlled burn turned into 3,000 plus. Gotta love there wisdom.

 

[avbug]

I thought perhaps you meant something else.

Just as fires are not scheduled, neither are the responses to them.

Several years ago, I got a call at ten o' clock one night. The caller said we were departing for a fire in Florida at 0600. I drove to the next town to buy supplies, and stayed up late ensuring that the aircraft was stocked and ready to go. Ten months later, while giving a tour of the C-130 to a group of scouts in Grand Junction, Colorado, the base manager approached me to inform me that we were released to go home. It took a lot of convincing to get me to understand that he meant home-home, instead of the ready shack or the hotel. I was home a week and was sent out on a different airplane to San Bernadino for fires in California. I returned home on Christmas day.

Tankers are contracted, meaning that under Exclusive-use contracts, the airplane is arranged to go on duty on a certain date and be released on a certain date, with 14 hour duty days for the crew and 24 hour availability for the airplane during that time period. Certain operations have one day a week off, or in some cases, two days every two weeks. However, virtually all aircraft are also operated CWN, or Call When Needed, and no operator is going to refuse a dispatch outside the contract dates. I've never worked a contract that ended on the scheduled date. Any more, especially, with changing weather patterns and ever-increasing fire seasons, some crews don't go home at all. You simply go. Most aren't that fortunate, however, and unpredictably, the work eventually runs out and crews are sent home.

As far as "controlled burn," that's more of a media term. The proper term is "prescribed fire." A fire prescription for a managed forest or land is written, detailing the exact conditions that are required for the fire to be conducted. Almost like a pharmacy prescription. Fires are conducted to control disease, promote growth, and a number of other reasons. Prescribed fires are generally always conducted in accordance with the prescription, which is a legal document. However, nature being what it is, things change. Fire is a chemical reaction which can occasionally react in unpredictable and unexpected ways. Wind comes up that is not forecast, or that is from a different direction or a different value.

Aerial firefighting is about controlling fire, rather than putting it out. That might be one of the only proper applications for the term "controlled burn," though that's really a horse of a different color. Most of the fires in Utah so far have been natural causes, not prescribed fire...but once a fire takes off, the cause is really unimportant. The only issue is, and should be, managing the fire in order that all parties enjoy the most favorable outcome.

 

[dash8driver]

oh man.. this is hilarious..

 

[Grumman guy]

whats so hilarious about it?

 

[dash8driver]

whats so hilarious about it?

if you cant see it, i cant help you...


stby, let me get the popcorn...